South Korean regulators introduce tokenized securities roadmap

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (SFC) introduced a three-phase roadmap to develop infrastructure for tokenized securities issuance, for assets including stocks, bonds and funds.

Starting Feb. 4, 2027, tokenized securities will be legally recognized as digitized forms of securities after an update to the Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks and Bonds is scheduled to take effect, the FSC revealed in a Friday press release.

The first phase will offer tokenized securities legal recognition, including for institutional money market funds, bonds, unlisted stocks and fractional investment securities. Phase two would expand tokenization to all publicly offered securities, while phase three aims for onchain payments linked to stablecoins.

The roadmap is part of a planned implementation of the amended Capital Markets Act and Electronic Securities Act, the country’s first tokenized securities framework, scheduled to take full effect on Feb. 4. 

Next, the FSC plans to propose revisions to relevant subordinate regulations by the end of September and decide the timeline for the second and third phase of the roadmap. Before the roadmap’s initiation, the FSC said it will work with the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) to develop the relevant tokenization infrastructure.